Aftermath
by Kasrkin-Ghost
Summary: A post-apoc universe, where the survivors of Saunders attempt to find others.


**A/N: This is an attempt I had about 6 months ago at writing a Garupan Fanfic. I thought I'd just put it up here anyway as a One Shot or something. The premise was t0o be a post-apocalyptic universe where the Saunders ship, along with most of the Eastern Hemisphere has been nuked. If I get any good reviews I may consider continueing, but at present I probably won't. At least not til I finish my Newcastle story (Chapter 1 for that is halfway done btw)**

I sat alone, legs crossed and held inwards to my chest, in a sea of purple. I sighed and uncrossed my legs, allowing myself to fall to the ground. Hundreds of sundial lupines caught me and entrapped me in a soft embrace. I deeply inhaled and took a last glimpse at the perfect blue sky, before I closed my eyes. Thousands of birds filled my ears with their song, and the divine smell of the lupines embedded itself in my nose. It was so different to the normal smell of sea-salt, oil and iron. I could live here forever, in perfect tranquillity if it weren't for the tapping on my leg.

_Tapping on my leg, that wasn't there before._

I opened my eyes and lifted my head, my left arm snaked around behind it to hold my head's weight. I looked down at my legs, covered with the long, white not-quite-stockings socks that met black converse at my ankles. There was nothing there. I could feel it though, an insistent tapping that was growing more and more rapid with every passing second.

"Kei, wake up!"

The demand came from the air, but it was definitely Arisa's voice. I sat up rapidly and turned my body left and right, golden hair flying in front of my face. Arisa was speaking, but I couldn't see her. How was that possible, the drab metal confines that I found myself in left little room to hide, and I could smell small traces of her perfume over the prevalent mix of iron and oil. The tapping on my leg stopped. Relief at last, but as I lay back down upon the purple lupines I couldn't help but wonder where Arisa was. Then my left knee slammed into my stomach.

"Geez Kei, it takes a lot to wake you up." Arisa said gazing smugly up at me.

I looked down at her. Her hand rested upon my knee, having just pushed it into my stomach. Through one of the many holes in my now grey socks I could feel the oil that covered her hands. I stifled a yawn, and wondered what I had dreamed of. I could vaguely pictures a field of flowers.

"What's up Arisa?" I asked.

"You said to wake you up at zero-three hundred hours for guard duty." Arisa replied, her brow creasing.

I glanced around the Easy Eight's interior, Arisa and I were the only ones in the tank, and Arisa was hanging half out one of the hatches blocking most of the moonlight that was attempting to flood in. I stretched my legs out, purposely forcing Arisa out of the hatch. I heard her mutter a curse as she slid off the Sherman's front armour.

I reached up and pushed the Commander's hatch open and was greeted with the sight of hell on earth. The city ahead was in ruins, in some places the orange lick of flames could be seen. I doubted we'd find other survivors in there, but I'd never been one to listen to doubt, even when it came from myself. I looked down at Arisa. The push from the Sherman hadn't injured her too badly, and she was merely sitting on the ground pouting up at me. I flashed her a smile and raised my hand in a peace sign, she flipped me off in return. I glanced up from her, and saw Naomi placing a log onto a campfire, an M4A1 Half-Track illuminated by the fire's flickering light behind her.

I placed my hands on either side of the cupola and pushed myself up, and out of the tank. I was met by the crisp night air, and the almost pleasant smell of wood smoke. Carefully I jumped from the Sherman and dusted myself off, before offering Arisa a hand up. She grudgingly accepted it.

I started to make my way over to the fire and the M4A1, a quite crunch of gravel behind be told me Arisa was too. I waved at Naomi and she held her hand up in greeting, before returning her attention to the fire. I turned my head towards Arisa. Her face was illuminated and the twin gold start she used to hold her pigtails in place shone with reflected light.

"Why have we got a fire going?" I asked Arisa.

"Alexis caught a few rabbits while she was on her watch, Naomi is cooking them so we can add them to the ration packs tomorrow." Arisa replied, "She said it would help everyone's moral and that you probably wouldn't mind."

I nodded, she was right after all. The small amount of K-Rations that had been in our Sherman and M4A1 had grown bland after some time, not to mention that they were running out at an alarming pace.

"If we add some meat to the meals, make sure to make the meal sizes smaller," I told Arisa. "That way we can save on rations."

She nodded. With nothing else to discuss, I dismissed my second-in-command. She yawned before making her way over to the M4A1. She opened the Half-Track's rear hatch and climbed in. A camouflaged tarpaulin covered the top of our makeshift tent, and we'd covered the Half-Track's insides with mattresses to make it more comfortable. In a more peaceful time the M4A1 had been used to ferry crews from destroyed Shermans, in our Panzerfahren matches, out of the battle-area. Though we'd always found other uses for it, like when I'd had Arisa drive me and my last date around in it.

The memory of that night was still rather clear. I'd had to endure Arisa's taunts for weeks after it, but it was worth it. My date was from another school, but we'd managed to keep in touch right up until the bombs fell. I found myself hoping her ship had had better luck than the Saunders ship had. Over four thousand souls lost, and the immense thirteen kilometre long Saunders Girls Academy ship now sat on the bottom of the port.

I shook my head violently, ridding myself of the negative waves. They would only serve to depress me. Instead I walked over to Naomi with the intent of making conversation, hoping to clear my mind with some dialogue.

"So I hear we caught some food." I said, "How long will they take to cook?"

"Shouldn't be much longer." Naomi replied, "Do you want us to start moving during the night again?"

I nodded, "We really don't know what's out there, but whatever there is, it will have a lot more difficulty seeing us at night."

"But we won't see them either." Naomi countered, "At least give us an hour's rest. Arisa only just finished her guard shift."

"Sounds fair." I replied.

We stood together in silence for a few moments. Naomi wasn't a person of many words, and I found it very difficult to start up a conversation with her. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even know what she liked to talk about. The only thing we'd had in common at Saunders was that we'd both been in the Panzerfahren team. She'd been the Firefly's gunner and a crack shot with its 17lbr canon, even at ranges of over two kilometres, she'd hit the centre of any target. Only time had delayed her from winning us our match with Ōarai last year.

"So, was it easy to adjust to the new gun?" I asked her.

The choice of topic had, admittedly, sounded better in my head. Though now that, I'd said it I'd have to attempt to make a lasting conversation based off of it. She looked over at me, an eyebrow slightly cocked.

"I guess, it's less accurate though." She replied.

_Great idea for a conversation Kei_, I mentally congratulated myself.

At least I'd managed to drive the negative thoughts from my brain. I left Naomi with a quick goodbye and walked over to where I'd be sitting for my guard duty. The warmth of the fire left me, and I was suddenly reminded of the cold that the nights brought. I could swear that temperatures had not been this low before the war. A beach chair that Arisa had found in the last town we had moved through served as my guard post. On the chair's left was a log, turned on its side to be used as a table, with a pair of binoculars on top. On the right sat the Type 64 Rifle that had been used by a group of bandits who attacked us.

The Panzerfahren regulation armour on the Sherman had stopped the bullets, and we had convinced the bandits that our tank was real. They'd surrendered and we'd taken their gun. It wasn't much, but it was the only real weapon we had. The Panzerfahren grade ammunition in our tanks wouldn't do much good against any real tanks, and they weren't suitable for use on any other target.

I sighed as I slumped into the chair. Here I was thinking of trying to fight a war with pretend tanks, a war that we shouldn't have even been involved in. I should be in Saunders getting ready for the next Panzerfahren season. I picked up the binoculars and scanned the landscape around us. I could make out a few silhouettes of trees, and the odd house, but not much more. Turning the other way revealed only the husks of cars and the outskirts of the city.

I hadn't expected to see much anyway. I never could see well in the dark in first place, and the nights had been getting blacker recently. This was going to be a long, and boring watch. It always was. At least I could pick up the slight scent of the rabbits that Naomi was cooking. It wasn't a nice a scent as the other meats I rather eat, but I couldn't be picky now. For all I knew, I'd never eat those types of meat again.

The next hour passed with as much boredom as I'd expected. The most exciting thing to happen was when it started to rain. I grimaced and pulled my Panzerfahren jacket over my head, as a raincoat of sorts. It wasn't very effective. I was still soaked through to the bone. Meanwhile, everyone else was nice, dry and warm in the Half-Track. Naomi had even had the good fortune to have finished cooking slightly before the rainfall started. At the very least the rainfall only lasted a short time. I marched up to the Half-Track and banged on its side and the redhead that had been the gunner in Arisa's Sherman poked her head out.

"Good Morning!" She greeted me, rather joyfully.

"Morning Ruby." I returned her greeting with as much effort as I could, attempting to come off as my usual self, "We're moving out, would you mind waking the others?"

She nodded, and poked her head back inside the Half-Track. Soon I heard the murmuring of its occupants waking up. Ruby walked around to the front of the Half-Track and opened the driver's side door. She quickly jumped up into the cabin and started the Half-Track's engine. Only a few minutes later the rest of the Half-Track's occupants jumped out of the back and followed me over to our Easy Eight. The Sherman was under-crewed by one, but we had little use for a loader, seeing as our gun wouldn't damage anything. We kept it loaded, as to fire a warning shot and give the impression we were armed, but when it came down to it, we couldn't do much anyway. Besides we had two crew members trained as a gunner, and with no disrespect meant to Ruby, Naomi was the better gunner by far. So instead of riding in our tank, Ruby drove the Half-Track.

Alexis started our tank's engine and Arisa turned on our radio. She may be my second-in-command, but her skills with radios were nearly unmatched. Ruby pulled the Half-Track out behind the Sherman and we picked up a slow twenty kilometre an hour speed as we approached the city. I sat with my hatch open, and the Type 64 sitting where our fake 50. Cal had once been. Arisa tapped on my leg, and I looked down at her.

"No signals on any frequencies." She reported.

"Never hurts to check, I guess," I replied, "Perhaps one day we might hear something."

The unilluminated road was littered with rusting cars, some with doors open, and collapsed power lines and street lamps. The odd raven pecked at the remains of some of the car's drivers or passengers. I ignored that grizzly sight. It would've been idiotic to attempt to drive along the road. Instead we drove along the footpaths and nature strip. Though there was one odd car parked on the nature strip, it was easy to push it the out of the way, easier than if it were on the road.

Our Sherman made a particularly loud noise as it pushed the car out the way, a loud grinding that made my skin prickle. I surveyed the area frantically. If anyone was going to ambush us, they would do it here. It was then that my eye caught movement. Whatever it was, it was fast and black. I held my hand up, to let Ruby know we were stopping, before I kicked Alexis' shoulders. Alexis brought the Easy Eight to a halt.

"We're armed more heavily than you!" I shouted at whoever was out there.

There was no response. I cocked the Type 64 for good measure. Then I saw it again, moving swiftly between two cars. It moved fast and low, and pounced over the car in front of it. It was caught in a puddle of moonlight for a split second, and I recognised what it was. A panther, and it wasn't the Kuromorimine type. I jumped back in the tank hatch and slammed it closed after me. Arisa and Naomi looked at me questioningly. I laughed a little.

"It's a panther!" I said, "Must've escaped from the zoo or something."

We sat inside the tank for a while, before a Radio message from Ruby, asking if she'd just had a panther run past her Half-Track, told us we were safe. I didn't know why the panther was in such a rush, and honestly I didn't really care. The danger had passed, and now I could laugh a little at the incident. We pushed onwards, intent on making it into the city before day broke. I glanced at my watch. It read 05:47. The sun would be up in twenty minutes.

Ahead I spotted a petrol station, and ordered us to come to a halt at it. With any luck there would still be some petrol left for us to take. Besides, we'd been driving for an hour and a half, and I was feeling quite hungry. We pulled over at the station, and I jumped out and ran over to the leaded fuel pumps. I gave one a quick squeeze and to my delight, oil flowed out. The Sherman and Half-Track's engines cut out and we all pilled out. Naomi bringing out the K Rations and some of the rabbit that she'd cooked. I delegated the task of filling up our jerry cans to Alexis, and walked over to the back of the Half-Track, where Naomi had placed all the food. With the sun's first rays of the day starting to become visible on the horizon, the black armour of the M4A1 started to turn into the field green that it had been painted in.

The rays of warmth assaulted my back as I picked up one of the Ration bars and a few cuts of the rabbit meat. I left the Half-Track and jumped onto the back of my Sherman. I leaned against its turret as I ate. I had just started to engage in conversation with Ruby and Arisa when an idea struck me. I slid off the tank and marched over to the petrol station's convenience store. Ruby was too busy teasing Arisa about some guy named Takashi and Arisa was too busy defending herself to notice me slid from the tank.

I stood in front of the store's electronic doors, but they didn't open. I hadn't really expected them to, not much electricity was working now. Instead I returned to the Sherman and removed the Type 64 from its mount. That caught Ruby and Arisa's attention.

"What are you doing Kei?" Arisa asked.

"Getting us some drinks!" I replied with a smile.

"With a gun?" Ruby asked, "That has less chance than Arisa with Taka-"

Ruby's remark was cut off by Arisa punching her in the arm.

"I don't even like him anymore!" Arisa replied, "He's probably dead now anyway."

That remark made the smile drop from Ruby's face.

"I- ah," Ruby stumbled.

This situation was getting quickly out of hand. I coughed loudly to draw both their attention to me.

"How about those drinks?" I asked, flashing them both a smile.

They both nodded, and followed me over to the convenience store's doors. I aimed the Type 64 and let off a quick three round burst. It shattered the glass in the door. Ruby was the first inside, stepping over the shattered remains of the door, and walked over to the back of the store, where a large refrigerator sat. She pulled open the refrigerator door and reached in. She removed a bottle of cola, and threw it over to me. With a single swift moment, I caught the bottle.

"Use by date is 2015!" I exclaimed, "These are still good to drink."

"If you want flat, warm cola." Arisa snidely replied.

I stuck my tongue out at her and reminded her that normal cola wasn't going to be available for some time. We then spent the next half hour effectively looting the place of all its food, that hadn't gone off, and any other valuable items. In fact the only thing we didn't take was the million yen in the cash register. Funny, a robbery just last year would've done the opposite.

**Please Review**


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